People are funny - they tend to stick to old habits even as new realities overtake them. The CD industry may be collapsing (apparently, young folks don’t even want free CDs!) but I keep buying them.
But I realized the other day that I don’t actually listen to CDs anymore! We’ve now digitized our entire 11,000-song CD collection and I’ve unplugged our home CD player. Even in the car, where the convenience and durability of CDs was a serious benefit, we’re listening to more and more iPod music these days. As for me, I’m not even sure if my car CD player even works anymore… What a strange new world music has become…
Over the last year, I’ve bought about two dozen CDs and downloaded just four albums and a half dozen single songs. I’m of the generation (X, that is) that still remembers how beautiful and artistic album art can be, and longs for a tangible copy of my music. While ripping our last CDs last month, I was struck by the packaging of CDs like the Beastie Boys’ To the 5 Boroughs, Pet Shop Boys’ Alternative, and my heavy vinyl copy of Shellac’s The Rude Gesture: A Pictorial History.
Most younger people will never reminisce about album covers, though. Although iTunes albums include “digital booklets”, lots of music is just downloaded on a song-by-song basis. The only artwork they get is a single little square picture for use in iTunes’ Cover Flow.
But I’m not going to lament “these kids these days.” Instead, I’m wondering why I still buy CDs when I can get them from Apple with one touch on the iPhone, or in glorious non-DRM mp3 form from Amazon if I want to sit at the PC. The first thing I do when I buy a CD these days is rip a copy of it for use on the iPod anyway! I’ve got a stack of brand new unplayed CDs on my desk - I’ve listened to my mp3 copy but never the disc itself!
But I keep buying CDs, and bands keep releasing them. Even Radiohead now sells In Rainbows in Wal-Mart, on Amazon, and even on iTunes, but they’ve closed down their pay-what-you-want download site. And I can’t quite see myself switching full-time to downloaded music and missing all that artwork!
Give me another few years, though, and I bet I’ll be like most of those kids - exclusively downloading music, even as Newbury Comics joins the big four in bankruptcy court…
Gary Johnson | 20-Jan-08 at 4:58 pm | Permalink
I am in the process of ripping my cds to Flac. I plan on setting up a dedicated machine, and for the moment am thinking VISTA Home Premium. Now that Blu-ray seems to have one, My favorite way of thinking about this is, I get rid of my old DVD player, get an HTPC that plays new and old DVDs, is my digital jukebox and I get an OTA DVR for free
Digital jukebox ( Media Monkey)
Playing Web based Content (Firefox)
Digital Slideshow used with Digital Jukebox and Media Monkey Visualizations ( Slideshow.exe - We work out to this)
OTA DVR (built into Windows Vista Home Premium)
Play Blu-Ray and regular old DVDs
The HTPC is pretty much a standalone PC, its networked to get access to internet, file transfer, backup, administration and use of other network connected devices (printer) easy.
We are not planning on do much with streaming music or video from this system to the rest of the house.
I may try and connect a pair of speakers in the living room or dining room to play music; however, I probably would hard wire them or use some sort of wireless connection.